Dallas Voice has offered each of the Democratic presidential nominees the opportunity to reply to a set of specific questions related to LGBTQ issues. We have asked the same questions of each candidate and given them each the opportunity to answer each as in-depth as they want, and we will be posting each candidate’s answers as written, verbatim, as soon as each returns his or her questionnaire. To find all the questionnaire answers submitted at any time, search DallasVoice.com for “ELECTION 2020.”
Here are the answers from Sen. Elizabeth Warren:
1. Does your campaign have a written statement describing your position on LGBTQ civil rights/equality in general? If so, what is it?
Yes. You can read my full plan for securing LGBTQ+ rights and equality here: https://elizabethwarren.com/lgbtq
Because every issue that affects LGBTQ+ people is an LGBTQ+ issue, many of my other plans would also help empower the community, including my plans to reform our criminal justice system, build a fair and welcoming immigration system, ensure a great public school education for every student, and keep our promises to our service members, veterans, and military families, give every American high-quality health care, and provide safe and affordable housing.
2. Will you reinstate LGBTQ protections removed from federal policies by the Trump administration? If so, how soon?
Yes. In my first 100 days as president, I will use every legal tool we have to make sure that LGBTQ+ people can live free from discrimination. We will restore and strengthen critical Obama-era non-discrimination protections that the Trump administration gutted. We will also take steps to affirmatively expand LGBTQ+ non-discrimination protections through regulation and executive action, including by ending TSA screening practices that single out transgender people, taking on overly broad religious exemptions to non-discrimination, reinstating civil rights protections in health care, and limiting Title IX waivers that allow colleges and universities to suspend students for being LGBTQ+. My administration will also strengthen and enforce the HUD Equal Access Rule, reversing Ben Carson’s outrageous proposal to allow homeless shelters to discriminate against transgender women.
3. What is your position on transgender people in the U.S. military? What will you do to ensure transgender people already in the military are protected from discrimination, and what will you do to make sure transgender people who want to enlist are treated fairly?
Our national security community is weaker when LGBTQ+ Americans are excluded. I have opposed the Trump administration’s shameful ban on transgender service members from the start, and I will reverse it on day one. The only thing that should matter when it comes to allowing military personnel to serve is whether or not they can handle the job.
That’s also true for service members with HIV. Advances in care and treatment have made it possible for individuals living with HIV to serve and deploy, and the Pentagon’s policies should be updated to reflect these advances in medical science.
I will also fight to pass the Equality Act to amend existing civil rights laws to explicitly ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, including by the military, housing, health care, education, public accommodations, credit, jury selection, and all federally-funded services – because no LGBTQ+ person should be discriminated against for who they are or who they love.
4. What will you do to protect LGBTQ youth from bullying and discrimination? How will you act to protect especially vulnerable transgender youth, particularly in a school setting?
As president, I’ll fight to make sure every LGBTQ+ student has an equal opportunity to thrive. I’ll start by directing the Education Department to reinstate guidance – revoked by the Trump administration – on transgender students’ rights under Title IX. I’ll work to amend the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to require school districts to adopt codes of conduct that specifically prohibit bullying and harassment on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. And I’ll make clear that federal civil rights laws prohibit anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination like discriminatory dress codes, banning students from writing or discussing LGBTQ+ topics in class, or punishing students for bringing same-sex partners to school events.
We must also increase the number of school-based mental health providers and ensure school staff are trained in culturally-competent and trauma-informed care, so all schools – including college and university campuses – have the resources they need to meet all of their students’ needs. I’ll fight harsh zero tolerance policies which push LGBTQ+ youth of color and LGBTQ+ youth with disabilities into the school-to-prison pipeline. And I will fight to pass the Safe Schools Improvement Act, which would require schools to ban bullying and harassment on the basis of a student’s actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, sex, disability, sexual orientation, and gender identity, and will be particularly critical for LGBTQ+ students who report high rates of harassment.
5. What is your position on religious freedom laws? How do you propose to protect LGBTQ civil rights and religious freedom?
We must prevent the weaponization of religion to discriminate against or harm LGBTQ+ people. The freedom of worship is a core American value. But the Trump White House has weaponized the language of religion by giving federal agencies, government contractors, and grantees a license to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people, as long as they claim they discriminated for a religious reason. Religious liberty should not be used to shield bigotry. As president, I would fight to pass the Do No Harm Act to return the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to its original goal of protecting religious minorities and further clarify that this law can’t be used to harm LGBTQ+ people.
My administration will also make LGBTQ+ non-discrimination a condition of federal grants and require organizations that receive federal grants to have a clear non-discrimination policy prohibiting discrimination against LGBTQ+ people they serve. And we will ensure that grantees, especially community-based organizations, have access to training and technical assistance so they can fully comply.
6. What would you do to ensure that gains in LGBTQ equality under your administration couldn’t be reversed by a less-friendly administration that might follow?
Today, federal law still does not expressly prohibit firing a transgender person because of their gender identity, evicting a bisexual person because their same-sex partner moves in, or deliberately misgendering a non-binary student in the classroom. There should be absolutely no question that LGBTQ+ Americans have equal rights under law. That’s why I’m an original co-sponsor of the Equality Act, which would amend existing civil rights laws to explicitly ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing, health care, education, public accommodations, credit, jury selection, and all federally-funded services. I will end the filibuster so that we have a path to getting critical legislation like the Equality Act passed, and as the Supreme Court threatens to give employers a free pass to discriminate against LGBTQ+ workers, I also pledge to nominate judges who will uphold, rather than threaten, LGBTQ+ rights.
7. Do you support passage of the Equality Act to protect LGBTQ people from employment discrimination? If so, what would you do to help get the legislation through Congress so that you could sign it into law?
Yes. I’m an original co-sponsor of the Equality Act, and I will fight to get it passed as president. But we can’t just wait for Congress to act. In my first 100 days as president, I will use every legal tool we have to make sure that LGBTQ+ people can live free from discrimination. We will restore and strengthen critical Obama-era non-discrimination protections that the Trump administration gutted. And I will end the filibuster so that we have a path to getting critical legislation like the Equality Act passed.
8. Do you have a plan in place to address the epidemic of anti-LGBTQ violent crimes happening in this country? What would you do to help stop violence targeting transgender people, especially transgender women of color?
Violence and harassment of transgender people — and especially transgender women of color — is a national crisis. It is time for a president to say their names and honor their memory by fighting every day for a country where trans women of color can thrive free from discrimination. My administration will use every legal tool we have to prohibit the intersecting forms of discrimination that transgender women of color face everywhere it occurs, including by issuing first-of-its-kind guidance on enforcing claims involving intersectional race and gender discrimination. I will also strengthen and enforce the HUD Equal Access Rule, reversing Ben Carson’s outrageous proposal to allow homeless shelters to discriminate against transgender women — so if a trans women of color survivor loses her home because of intimate-partner violence, she doesn’t face widespread discrimination from homeless shelters. And I will create a new grant program within the Office of Violence Against Women that will specifically channel resources into organizations by and for transgender people, especially people of color.
We also need a comprehensive, multi-dimensional response to prevent and address violence against the transgender community – particularly in the immigration and criminal justice systems. I will fight for trans migrants by affirming protections for gender identity and sexual orientation-based asylum claims and ensure that LGBTQ+ asylum seekers are not unnecessarily detained. I will also direct the Bureau of Prisons to end the Trump administration’s dangerous policy of imprisoning transgender people in facilities based on their sex assigned at birth, end solitary confinement and other practices that make prisons unsafe for LGBTQ+ people, and ensure that all facilities meet the needs of transgender people, including by providing medically necessary care, like transition-related surgeries, while incarcerated.
Additionally, my administration will stop the criminalization of homelessness, which disproportionately impacts LGBTQ+ people of color. I’ll push to ban the legal defense that allows a defendant to use a victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity to justify assault.
And I will prosecute violence against trans people as hate crimes. I support the NO HATE Act, which would improve the reporting of hate crimes, provide support to law enforcement in helping identify hate crimes, and create hate crime hotlines. But prosecuting hate crimes alone will not be enough to end this crisis – and we must do all we can to prevent violence from occurring in the first place.
9. How do you propose to ensure that LGBTQ people, especially trans people, have access to adequate and informed health care?
As president, I will fight to make sure that every LGBTQ+ person can get the equitable, gender-affirming, and culturally-competent health care they need. The first step toward eliminating LGBTQ+ health disparities is making sure that everyone has high-quality health coverage – and that means Medicare for All. LGBTQ+ individuals are more likely to be uninsured and to delay care because they can’t afford it. And under our private insurance system, only 63% of employers who offer insurance to opposite-sex spouses also offer it for same-sex spouses. This is wrong – your boss should not be able to decide whether a couple’s marriage “counts” for coverage.
I will immediately work to repeal the Trump administration’s terrible proposed rule permitting discrimination against LGBTQ+ people in health care. The new rule, if it goes into effect, will allow doctors to discriminate against LGBTQ+ patients, misgender transgender patients during the course of care, and deny coverage for gender affirming procedures. As president, I will ensure that LGBTQ+ people receive safe, affirming care from all providers. That means covering all medically necessary care for LGBTQ+ patients under Medicare for All, and allowing providers discretion to deem gender-affirming procedures as medically necessary based on an individualized assessment. I will also ensure that intersex and transgender children have a say in their health care – especially when it comes to decisions that affect whether their bodies match their gender identity.
We have also made incredible strides and medical advancements toward ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic, but it remains a public health crisis. That’s why we must commit to further preventing the spread of HIV by treating everyone who is infected, working to find a cure, and ending the domestic HIV epidemic by 2025. Thanks to medical advances, a person living with HIV on regular antiretroviral treatment will reduce their viral load so that it is undetectable – and therefore, untransmittable. But for too many living with HIV, treatment is out of reach. Under Medicare for All, everyone will be able to receive the treatment they need.
I will also protect reproductive health care from right-wing ideologues. LGBTQ+ people are deeply affected by threats to reproductive health services. We must repeal the Hyde Amendment and the Trump administration’s discriminatory domestic gag rule, fully support Title X family planning funding, and push for LGBTQ+ inclusive sex education. I have also called on Congress to pass new federal laws that ensure birth control and abortion care for all people, and I will fight for comprehensive reproductive care under Medicare for All.
10. What else would you like to tell the LGBTQ community?
We need a president who will lift up the voices of every gay, lebsian, bisexual, transgender, non-binary, queer, Two-Spirit, and intersex person. My comprehensive plan to secure LGBTQ+ rights and equality will fight back against discrimination and make sure that no one feels unsafe because of who they are or who they love — and that means coming at this from all angles.
As president, I’ll fight to make sure every LGBTQ+ young person is treated with dignity, fairness, and love at home and in school. This starts by banning discrimination against sexual orientation and gender identity in our adoption agencies and child welfare system. We must also institute a nationwide ban on conversion therapy, and as president, I will ensure that no federal dollars are used to support conversion therapy and will take executive action to end conversion therapy for LGBTQ+ minors.
Too many transgender and non-binary people can be outed or put in danger when presenting identification documents that are not consistent with their gender identity, which is why I will also make it easier to change identification documents to reflect a person’s gender identity. And I will end the discriminatory blood donation ban for gay and bisexual men and make sure that any restrictions around blood donations are grounded in science and based on individual risk factors.
As president, I will also develop a comprehensive LGBTQ+ homelessness prevention program within the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness to give this problem the national attention it deserves. The program will research pathways into homelessness that disproportionately affect LGBTQ+ individuals, like family rejection, and work directly with LGBTQ+ youth of color and transgender youth experiencing homelessness to gather information on the particular barriers they face. I will also fight for programs that help LGBTQ+ youth once they become homeless, including reauthorizing and fully funding the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act and ensuring that it includes robust non-discrimination protections. And I will support programs that help people experiencing homelessness secure employment and educational opportunities that will prevent them from being pulled back into homelessness. We also need to repeal laws that criminalize homelessness. These laws disproportionately affect communities of color and LGBTQ+ people, who as a result become further entangled in the justice system. Instead, we need to do more to ensure that individuals experiencing homelessness are provided with the services they need to get back on their feet.
LGBTQ+ rights are human rights. The Trump administration has undermined our nation’s leadership on global LGBTQ+ equality at every turn, but as president, I will embrace a multilateral approach to support LGBTQ+ rights. That means returning the U.S. to the United Nations Human Rights Council and recommitting to the Global Equality Fund to support LGBTQ+ movements in other countries. I will also put the full muscle of the State Department behind protecting human rights for LGBTQ+ people globally – including by appointing a Special Envoy for the Human Rights of LGBTI Persons and ensuring that the work of advancing LGBTQ+ rights is incorporated across regional bureaus. My new approach to trade will require any country that wishes to enter into a trade agreement with the United States to uphold internationally recognized human rights, including the rights of LGBTQ+ people. And just as USAID requires grantees to apply a gender analysis to their project proposals, I will require all foreign assistance grantees to describe how their proposed activities will help to advance LGBTQ+ rights and equality.
Across all of these issues, we need access to high-quality data. The Trump administration’s onslaught of regulatory rollbacks has been accompanied by a deliberate erasure of the LGBTQ+ community in government surveys and websites. As president, I will immediately begin working with our LGBTQ+ allies to restore information on LGBTQ+ issues to government websites. I will also reconvene the Obama-era Federal Interagency Working Group on Improving Measurement of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity in Federal Surveys to continue to develop best practices around collecting data and will ensure that these methods are used in surveys across the federal government, including the U.S. Census and American Community Survey.
The path to LGBTQ+ equality is far from over, but shoulder to shoulder, I will fight for LGBTQ+ equality in solidarity with the leaders and organizers who have been at the helm from the very beginning. Because when we organize together, when we fight together, and when we persist together, we can win.